Quotes of the day

posted at 10:01 pm on July 16, 2013 by Allahpundit

On Monday afternoon, the US Department of Justice appealed to civil rights groups and the general public across the country for “tips” on George Zimmerman in their pursuit of potential federal civil rights charges against the just-acquitted defendant in the Trayvon Martin killing. The DOJ actually went so far as to set up an e-mail address to allow such tips: Sanford.florida@usdoj.gov. The email address is slated to go operational by the end of the week.

Barbara Arnwine, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law told the Orlando Sentinel that the DOJ had held a Monday conference call “calling on us to actively refer anyone who had any information” that would help build a case against Zimmerman. “They said they would very aggressively investigate this case,” Arnwine stated.

***

In the convention center lobby here, the same phrase — the title of an old Spike Lee movie — keeps popping up: “Do the right thing.”…

Gary Bledsoe, vice chairman of the NAACP’s legal committee, said that he heard enough during the three-week trial of George Zimmerman to convince him that race played a role in the killing of Martin. The 17-year-old was unarmed but, according to defense attorneys, initiated a physical fight after Zimmerman began tailing him.

Especially compelling, Bledsoe said, was a statement Zimmerman made in a call to a non-emergency police line after spotting Martin walking through his community in Sanford, just north of Orlando: “These a–holes, they always get away.” Any linguist would say Zimmerman’s comment had racial connotations, Bledsoe said.

“There are so many references with clear racial undertones,” Bledsoe, a Texas civil rights lawyer, said in an interview. “You can break down the language.”

***

“My prayers are with the Martin family and with every family who loves someone who is lost to violence,” [Hillary Clinton] said in an almost 30-minute speech. “No mother, no father, should ever have to fear for their child walking down a street in the United States of America.”…

She said she knew this week has “brought heartache, deep painful heartache” to families in the wake of the not guilty verdict in George Zimmerman’s trial last Saturday…

“Yesterday I know you heard from the Attorney General about the next steps from the Justice Department and the need for a national dialogue,” she said. “As we move forward as we must I hope this sisterhood will continue to be a force for justice and understanding.”

***

Plus, as much eagerness as there is to hear more from Obama, there’s a widespread worry any more direct statement from him could spoil the Justice Department action that Attorney General Eric Holder renewed his commitment to on Monday.

“If there’s a voice that we want to hear in this administration, it’s the voice of the U.S. Department of Justice,” said NAACP President Ben Jealous, arguing that his focus is on building pressure for civil rights prosecution and a civil case against Zimmerman that would force the shooter to take the stand. “I told the president a long time ago that we expect him to be commander in chief, not advocate in chief.”

Freshman Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) agreed. Finding a way to prosecute Zimmerman is the priority, not dissecting what was in the president’s statement or what wasn’t.

***

Federal civil rights statutes had a different genesis. They were enacted not to supplement state prosecutions, but because of the failure of the states to take seriously the civil rights of their citizens. The federal government was stepping in to fill a gap that widened in post civil war America, when African Americans were victimized and state law enforcement stood silent. The federal government was doing what the states couldn’t or wouldn’t do…

But all of this is an abstraction: The question is whether the federal government should step in following this verdict at this time. As The New York Times reported, there were problems with this state prosecution, problems unquestionably related to state politics and its self defense laws, which seemed to enable deadly force at a point far earlier than other states or the common law. The prosecution was delayed; witnesses were not interviewed immediately; evidence gathering was delayed. And the state trial took place before a six person jury – a jury whose size necessarily meant it would be less representative.

There is an argument for federal prosecution in cases in which uniquely federal interests are at stake or in which state and local officials prove themselves unwilling or unable to pursue wrongdoers. There’s no question state officials failed to dispense equal justice in the Jim Crow South. Yet there is no distinct federal interest in a local homicide, no matter how often it appears on cable news nationwide. Here in Ohio, federal prosecutors turned a violent intra-sect religious dispute into a federal case by showing that an involved weapon had, at one time, traveled in interstate commerce. This is absurd.

Undue assertions of federal authority are bad enough. It is even worse when federal prosecutors wait in the wings to second-guess acquittals by local juries. The Supreme Court may have concluded that a separate federal prosecution for the same crime does not violate the constitutional protection against “double jeopardy,” but that does not mean federal prosecutors are right to intervene in a high-profile case when a jury decides not to convict. Local officials made every effort to convict George Zimmerman, and there is no reason to believe the jury failed to fairly consider the evidence presented. Our justice system is premised on the idea that the government must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and sometimes a jury finds the government fell short. That some are disappointed in the verdict is an insufficient basis for the feds to take a second swing.

***

Observe that what the Justice Department has announced is an investigation, not a prosecution. This is the same pedantic distinction Holder drew when he was caught misleading Congress in connection with the surveillance of Fox News correspondent James Rosen. Investigation is cost-free for Holder. The only one who gets harmed is Zimmerman, because he has to live in fear of prosecution, and the continued investigation means a continued spotlight which implies continued harassment by the hard Left. Holder only gets hurt if he actually tries to file charges – he will be humiliated if the grand jury refuses to indict or a jury (or the trial judge) laughs the case out of court.

As I argued last year when Holder did his Sharpton collaboration, (a) the civil-rights statutes are of dubious constitutionality in terms of federal jurisdiction over intrastate activity by private citizens that involves no federal interest; and (b) even if that were not so, a federal civil-rights case against Zimmerman would be weaker than the state murder case – if it is possible, there is even less evidence that Zimmerman intended to interfere with Martin’s enjoyment of a recognized federal civil right than that Zimmerman possessed the criminal intent required to sustain a murder conviction. So when all is said and done, I believe the Justice Department will not indict Zimmerman, the trial would be too embarrassing for DOJ…

Expect a reprise on Zimmerman. Holder tells the Left he is aggressively investigating; but tells Congress he is just poking around in a responsible way, hasn’t really done anything in the way of filing charges, and respects the verdict in Florida. No charges get filed, but the racial-grievance industry has a green-light to continue agitating, Zimmerman endures the anxiety and expense of a continuing threat of prosecution, and we all watch the spectacle of our justice system used as a tool of racial politics and political fundraising.

“Separate and apart from the case that has drawn the nation’s attention, it’s time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods,” Holder said…

“But we must examine laws that take this further by eliminating the common sense and age-old requirement that people who feel threatened have a duty to retreat, outside their home, if they can do so safely,” Holder said. “By allowing — and perhaps encouraging — violent situations to escalate in public, such laws undermine public safety.”

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Not totally focused on stand your ground. There is also the subtext that since a tatted up street thug has become a symbol for racial oppression or something, we are having to endure lecture after lecture about how racist society is since a jury didn’t nullify the rule of law in the name of “justice for Trayvon.”

The fact of the matter is that Trayvon Martin’s actions contributed to his death. His dressing in hoodies like the gang responsible for a series of break-ins, his lurking in the dark between buildings, his challenging the crazy a** cracker instead of getting out of the neighborhood as quickly as possible, his decision to assault Zimmerman……all factors in Martin’s death. He lived life like a street thug and that is how he died. For blacks to make this worthless human being into some sort of innocent martyr is simply disgusting.

But I guess we’ll just have to let blacks get this out of their system before we even bother trying to have a legitimate discussion about race. Right now, all blacks want is violent retribution for any perceived slight. It is going to be a long hot summer.

even morning joe is bashing richard cohen for actually saying something not in sync with the rest of the left…

cmsinaz on July 17, 2013 at 7:18 AM

Yeah, imagine pointing out that Trayvon Martin was dressed in the uniform of a street thug. That doesn’t fit the left’s narrative that Martin was gunned down in cold blood while returning from Bible study or something.

I simply recognize the fact that the rat-eared coward’s God is probably not the same God as mine. He’s shown so little legitimate faith in a higher being that any of these expressions come off as trite and meaningless.

Rachel Jenteal scared Trayvon Martin into thinking that GZ was a homosexual rapist. THAT is what freaked Martin out, not race. Rush Limbaugh talked about this. THIS is what probably drove Martin, who apparently had a history of violent behavior, to jump on GZ in the dark and beat him.

It is becoming clear that under this administration no white or Hispanic person can feel physically safe,nor free from the prospect of unfair prosecution.Whites are being routinely targeted by blacks for retaliation,while Eric Holder initiates a campaign to make self-defense a crime.Obama et al are a bunch of racists and they must be stopped.

1. Use Federal power to outlaw both SYG laws and CCW, with an eye to getting rid of the 2nd Amendment altogether, or

2. Make the “social cost” of self-defense so high that being killed by street thugs out for their version of a good time is preferable to what the government will do to you and your family if you have the poor manners to survive.

Everyone would do well to study the history of the French Revolution at this point, as well as Haiti’s.

The Jacobins liked to ricochet through the streets, killing people at random, as a way of terrorizing the populace into obedience.

170 years later, “Papa Doc” Duvalier’s Tonton Macoutes did much the same.

I suspect our “best and brightest” now dream of having their own version. To “control” a defenseless populace peasantry.

And also, I suspect, because they get a secret, vicarious thrill out of seeing others suffer. As long as they can show clean hands after the fact.

- Ronald Reagan “Obama and the Zimmerman Trial: How to Divide a Nation” My Take.

kingsjester on July 17, 2013 at 6:47 AM

It’s amazing to witness the large numbers of people that hear Obama’s words and take them at their own perceived face value, without thinking any deeper. They swallow his deceitfulness, bait, hook, line and sinker.

Who ya gonna believe me, or your lyin’ eyes.

Children are being taught what to think, not how to think. It’s the group thinkers’ willful suspension of disbelief that frightens me most… That. And, mob rule (“what democracy looks like”) is never benign…

‘Stand Your Ground’ was not even used by the defense in the Zimmerman trial and thus had NO PART OF THE DECISION! The defense’s argument consisted of SELF-DEFENSE ONLY!
So all of the dispicable, race-baiting, fanning the flames of racism, riots, brutal attacks in the name of ‘justice’, etc is all BS!

It is an excuse for ANIMALS to riot, to unleash the hatred and racism in their own hearts in the form of attacking whites and Latinos, and commit crimes!

It is an EXCUSE for race-baiting, race profiteers – like Al Sharpton, Jesse jackson, & Eric Holder to fan the flames of racism, further divide America, and make a living from it. (Do you have any idea how much money the NAACP just made in the last 3 days from current and future donations through their false rhetoric? Do you know how much money and ‘face time’ ‘race pimps’ Al sharpton & Jesse Jackson just made the last 3 days on this tragedy?

And what of the embarrassing, despicable Atty General Eric Holder. Obama promised to help end racism, to get beyond the point where race-pimps & race baiters further divided this nation, and here is his own Atty General doing the same thing?! INO, Holder is simply further carrying out Obama’s – and Saul Alynski’s – agenda of divide & conquer! Community Organizer? What do you think Al Sharpton, Eric Holder, and even Obama himself has been doing? They have been going from community to community, organization to organization, to fan the flames of hatred – even used the DOJ funded by tax dollars to go to communities and organize protests, adding to the division of America. Obama wanted to be known as the great Uniter, but he is using the power of the government to do the complete opposite. He is a pathetic little man, learned well from the teachings of his hate-spewing, racist mentor Jeremiah Wright and of Saul Alynski, and is putting what he has learned from them to destroy this country!

Not only are these race pimps – Obama, Holder, & Sharpton – turning blacks against whites & Latinos, they are turning them away from THE LAW!All the violence – riots, fires, attacks on police and innocent civilians – is THEIR doing as they have encouraged it and is on their hands. I would encourage all the businesses that have been vadalized and all the innocent people who have been attacked the last few days to get a lawyer and file a civil rights & other charges laws suit against Sharpton, Holder, and Obama himself since it is THEY who have targeted whites and Latinos with their rhetoric and they who have stirred up and encouraged the violence against them! Charge THEM with a ‘hate crime’.

US Department of Justice appealed to civil rights groups and the general public across the country for “tips” on George Zimmerman in their pursuit of potential federal civil rights charges against the just-acquitted defendant in the Trayvon Martin killing.

Trayvon Martin was killed in February 2012, and George Zimmerman was acquitted in July 2013. Didn’t the prosecution have 16 months to get “tips” on George Zimmerman’s supposed racist behavior or thinking? What were they doing all that time? What about the FBI interviews of 47 witnesses about George Zimmerman, none of whom thought Zimmerman was racist?

“No mother, no father, should ever have to fear for their child walking down a street in the United States of America.”…

Hillary might be right about this one. George Zimmerman’s parents shouldn’t have to worry about his getting his head smashed into the sidewalk in his own neighborhood by an out-of-town thug.

But doesn’t Hillary remember fearing for Chelsea walking down some back alleys of Little Rock? Doesn’t she remember Bill Clinton telling her about his having to fight his own alcoholic stepfather?

Lots of lefties are deliberately misleading the public here. Trayvon Martin wasn’t some innocent kid “walking” in a hoodie. He attacked a neighborhood watchman unprovoked and beat his head into a sidewalk.

If George Zimmerman didn’t have a gun, Trayvon Martin might be alive–in jail for assault and battery.

The lawyer for the family who wants to socially engineer another outcome is calling for a high tech lynching of GZ. They have become that which they hate.

Kissmygrits on July 17, 2013 at 8:19 AM

Punks like Slavenowandie never hated the KKK. They -envied- them, hence their adaptation of the Klan’s rhetorical arguments and methodologies. Color flip George Fitzhugh’s arguments and you have the leftist trolls on this board.

The whole point of Stand your ground laws is that law abiding citizens should not have to live in fear of people who don’t care about the law or others. If someone breaks into my house, they will not survive. I am set up to have my gun loaded in about 3 seconds at most. Then I will call 911. If I am outside and someone assaults me, I will protect myself and my family.

Zimmerman presumably carried the gun not to hunt down Trayvon but to protect himself if things got out of hand. Had Trayvon never struck him, he probably would have questioned him and Trayvon may have told him to buzz off once he realized what was going on. Of course I am assuming this by what a typical neighborhood watch person would do and what the witnesses have claimed.

Gary Bledsoe, vice chairman of the NAACP’s legal committee, said that he heard enough during the three-week trial of George Zimmerman to convince him that race played a role in the killing of Martin. The 17-year-old was unarmed but, according to defense attorneys, initiated a physical fight after Zimmerman began tailing him.

Of course he did! What else would we expect him to hear, being the vice chairman of an organization solely devoted to racial preference based on skin color!